‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’ Review: Thoughtful Doc Pursues an Elusive Black Icon

variety.com:

Murtada Elfadl Jazmin Jones’ “Seeking Mavis Beacon” isn’t your typical kind of quest movie. Premiering in the NEXT section at Sundance, the format-defying film follows the nonbinary Black filmmaker on an elaborate search to find — but also to better understand — someone who shaped what they thought of the world and themselves.

Someone who didn’t really exist: the cover model for popular ’90s computer program “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.” As past users of the bestselling software surely recall (but may never have consciously considered), Mavis Beacon was a Black woman, knowledgeable and warm, who encouraged young people to master their keyboard skills.

She served as a virtual teacher and confidant for countless kids, including Jones — and later, computer prodigy Olivia McKayla Ross (credited here as an associate producer, though Jones refers to her on camera as “my collaborator”).

An early example of AI, Mavis Beacon was an invention of three white male computer programmers. Why did they choose a Black woman as their avatar? “I would like to claim that back in 1987, we were totally woke,” says one of these (well-compensated) tech pioneers when Jones puts the question to him.